We conclude this week’s Torah reading with verses of Devarim (Deuteronomy) 25:17-19:
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt. Who met you on the journey and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. You were famished and weary and [Amalek was] undeterred by fear of God. Therefore, when the LORD your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
As recorded in Shemot (Exodus) 17:8-16, Amalek was the first to attack the Jewish people after they had been redeemed and saved by Hashem through the miracles of the exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea. There is a yearly mitzvah to remember this evil perpetrated by Amalek as stated above in Devarim 25.
I had always thought that the first encounter with Amalek is the attack stated in Shemot 17:8:
וַיָּבֹא עֲמָלֵק וַיִּלָּחֶם עִם־יִשְׂרָאֵל בִּרְפִידִם׃
Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.
But Midrash Tanchuma in Devarim 25 relates that when the Jewish people went out of Egypt, Amalek heard that they were redeemed, and came against them at the Red Sea. The Jewsish people mentioned the explicit name of Hashem, and Amalek became bewildered, as stated (Exod. 15:15), “Then the captains of Edom were bewildered.”
We see from here that the first attack of Amalek came at the Red Sea and they then came again in Rephidim. There’s a glaring difference between these two episodes. At the first encounter the Jewish people repelled Amalek’s attack by uttering the explicit name of Hashem. At the second attack they needed to actually engage them in battle. What changed?
The answer lies in the verses in Shemot 17. “They encamped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moshe. “Give us water to drink,” they said; and Moshe replied to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you try Hashem?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people grumbled against Moshe and said, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” (Shemot 17: 1-3) The place [where this all took place] was named Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and because they tried Hashem, saying, ’Is Hashem present among us or not?’ Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. (Shemot 17: 7-8)”
The Midrash comments that the Torah states that Amalek came upon the Jewish people after stating the Jewish people’s challenge of, “Is Hashem present among us or not?” to imply that Hashem was saying, “I am always among you and ready at hand for everything you may need. Yet you say, “Is Hashem among us or not?” I swear that the dog (Amalek) shall come and bite you. You will cry for Me and then you will know where I am!” This can be compared to a man who carried his son upon his shoulder, and went out on a journey. The son saw an article and said, “Father, pick up that thing and give it to me” and he did. This happened a second and third time. They met a certain man to whom the son said, “Have you seen my father anywhere?” His father said to him, “Don’t you know where I am?” With that he put his son down and left him to fend for himself.
We can now begin to understand the difference between the first attack of Amalek and the second. Before the second attack the Jewish people lost their faith in Hashem. Therefore they had to fight a battle. At the Red Sea where the Jewish people were fresh off the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea their trust in Hashem was whole. At that point it was enough for them to utter the explicit name of Hashem and defeat Amalek. This can be explained based on the writings of Chovot HaLevavot in Sha’ar HaBitachon, the Gate of Trust in Hashem. If a person does not put his trust in Hashem he automatically puts his trust in something else, i.e. himself or someone or something else. When a person trusts in something else other than Hashem, Hashem removes His providence from him and leaves that person in the hands of whatever he trusts in.
When the Jewish people’s trust in Hashem was whole they could defeat their enemy under Hashem’s special providence without lifting a finger. Questioning, “Is Hashem present among us or not?” meant that the people had stopped trusting in Hashem and saw themselves bound to the world around them that lacked water. Thus they became vulnerable to a worldly enemy and had to resort to the way the world dictates dealing with an enemy.
The Torah tells us (Shemos 17:10-11), “Yehoshua did as Moshe told him and fought with Amalek, while Moshe, Aharon, and Chur went up to the top of the hill. Then, whenever Moshe held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.” The Mishna in masechta (tractate) Rosh Hashana (29a) comments, “Did the hands of Moshe make war when he raised them or break war when he lowered them? Rather, the verse comes to tell you that as long as the Jewish people turned their eyes upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they prevailed, but if not, they fell.” Moshe prayed as the Jewish people battled. But as they battled they had to subject their hearts to their father in Heaven. They had to put their trust back in Hashem realizing that everything in this world is in his hands. They rectified the cause for the oncoming of Amalek and were saved.
The miracle of Purim took place without any supernatural revelations of the hand of Hashem. Purim teaches us that Hashem orchestrates everything in our lives although it’s not obvious to us. It is in Him that we strive to put our trust in. Through this we merit the words of Yirmeyahu (17:7), “Blessed is the man who trusts in Hashem, who makes Hashem his refuge.”
Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak